Book Review: New York to Dallas

New York to Dallas by J.D. Robb

Publisher: Putnam (Penguin)

Category: Crime

Challenges: Mystery and Suspense Challenge, R.I.P. VI Challenge

Synopsis: One of Eve’s first collars manages to escape prison and he fixates on Eve and one of his last victims. Eve must face her past in order to put the criminal back behind bars.

My Thoughts: Eve faces a great deal in this book, she is forced to face a lot of very horrible memories, but as a result I think we see a growth in her that I have missed a bit in the past few books. Yes she has come to accept certain things in the last few books but in this one I think she finally has to face part of her past that she has managed to block out before.

This book definitely focuses on Eve and Roark. The Perp draws the two of them away from New York and they leave their team behind to tie up the investigation there. This does add a certain new dynamic to the book. Personally I really missed Peabody, Feeney, McNabb and the other characters that always add a bit of humanity to the books. Although the secondary characters that are included in this book are interesting I don’t have the same relationship to them as I do to the regular cast. And after having recently read Loyalty in Death where one of the secondary characters I started caring about gets killed off I‘m a bit vary of liking secondary characters in these books right now.

This book deals with how we move on from when something horrible has happened to us, and although I have never been trough anything truly horrible I can understand the victims in this book (Eve included) and how they choose to move on. Even though they choose very different paths. I think many of us choose to hide from things that happen to us in the past, but this book shows us that we cannot always hide, and sometimes it is infinitely more healthy to face what happened to us and then make the best of it all.

Overall this book make me very curious as to where Robb intends to take us in the next few books. There are certain things in this book that make me very curious.

Copyright ©2011 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: Judgment in Death

Judgment in Death by J.D. Robb

Publisher: Berkley Books

Category: Crime

Challenges: Mystery and Suspense Challenge, R.I.P. VI Challenge

Synopsis: The body of a dead cop is found in one of Roark’s clubs. Eve must work out if the victim died because he was a cop or because someone is after Roark. All while the waters are muddied by IAB.

My Thoughts: Judgment in Death is actually a very sad story about grief and betrayal and what it can do to people.  The victim in the story is ultimately an innocent pawn in a much bigger game, a game with multiple players and not all of them aware of each other.This is a story of corruption and love.

Because of these themes this book leaves me feeling a bit sad. Both for the characters in the book and for the idea that this could happen in our society as well. One of the major Swedish papers has recently been running a series of articles regarding issues within the police in Sweden. Not corruption in the way it is portrayed in Judgment in Death with criminals paying off police officers, but rather systemic issues. But I have to ask myself, can the two not be connected? If we accept that the police count inactive cases as solved, where will it lead?

As far as this book is concerned I have to hope that we have more police officers like Eve and her team.

Copyright ©2011 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: Witness in Death

Witness in Death by J.D. Robb

Publisher: Berkley Books

Category: Crime

Challenges: Mystery and Suspense Challenge, R.I.P. VI

Synopsis: A man is killed on stage during a performance with hundreds of witnesses, Lieutenant Eve Dallas included. Yet  the question of guilt is not so clear cut.

My Thoughts: Despite the dangers of using a cliché I will say that this book is a delicious romp in the world of theatre. No one is quite what they seem. Actors take any chance to try out a role. No one liked the deceased and everyone has some previous connection to others in the cast.

The play being produced is Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution and, while I’m not a fan of Christie, this book has that cozy murder mystery that her books evoke. No one particularly likes the deceased. And although there is the element of sexual crimes we have come to expect from a murder where Dallas is primary, somehow it fails to have quite the SVU feel that I normally get from the books.

On the whole this is one of the In Death books that I feel you can really cozy up with when the weather outside is frightful and just enjoy.

Copyright ©2011 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: Loyalty in Death

Loyalty in Death by J.D. Robb

Publisher: Berkley Books

Category: Crime

Challenges: Mystery and Suspense Challenge, R.I.P. VI

Synopsis: A man is killed by his lover. Should be a fairly easy case to solve, except it becomes clear very soon that it isn’t. There is conspiracy abound and Eve and her gang need to use their smarts to solve this case before thousands more die.

My Thoughts: Not one of my favourite Robbs, despite the fact that we get to meet a family member of one of the major characters, Peabody’s brother Zeke.

Eve is supposed to be a homicide cop, and although this book starts with a murder the investigation is never about the victim. It becomes about the terrorists and the bombing and what I love about Eve is that she stands for the victim and I don’t feel like she does in this book. I also have another problem with one event in this book. I hate it when authors make me care about a character and then kill them off. It really puts me off.

There are of course some highlights in this book, especially the Peabody, McNabb, Eve scenes make me giggle quite a bit. And that is probably one of the saving graces of the book. The mysteries are often formulaic but the interpersonal relationships are very real and very funny. None of the characters are perfect but they are real.

Copyright ©2011 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: Conspiracy in Death

Conspiracy in Death by J.D. Robb

Publisher: Berkley Books

Category: Crime

Challenges: Mystery and Suspense Challenge, R.I.P. VI Challenge

Synopsis: Someone killed a homeless man. And then took his heart. To top it all of the police officer who first secures the scene seems to have it out for Eve.

My Thoughts: This book really explores how our job can become central to our identity, and what happens when that identity is taken away from us. Because of the unfounded accusations of an individual Eve is taken off the job as a police officer. For her this is devastating as being a police officer is central to, not only who she is, but also to her sense of security. For many years she had no control over her own life, being a member of the NYPD gave her this sense of control.

I find it interesting how often we tie our identity to something, when actually our identity is made up of very many different identities. Eve has a hard time seeing herself as anything but a police officer. She fails to see that apart from being a kick ass police officer she is also a wife, friend, lover. She is valued for things other than her ability to solve murder cases. Of course she is fantastic at this but I think she learns a valuable lesson in that she can be so much more.

Other favourite parts of this book? We meet Troy Trueheart for the first time. I do love Trueheart. Those who read this blog have probably noted my love for the series about Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne, and Trueheart reminds me so much of one of the characters in that series, Kevin Flynn. Both are young, eager police officers who want to learn. Who want to move forward. And who are honest and caring. The world needs more guys like that.

Copyright ©2011 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: Holiday in Death

Holiday in Death by J.D. Robb

Publisher: Piatkus

Category: Crime fiction

Challenges: Mystery and Suspense Challenge

My Thoughts: This is probably the wrong time of year to read this book. It is set around Christmas, in New York, in the year 2058. A happy, young woman is found strangled by a Christmas garland. Eve Dallas and her crack team (which now includes McNabb (yay)) are faced with a killer who has a time limit and very few concrete leads. Add to that the fact that Eve is just not quite back to full fitness after the last book and you have another romp through the In Death world.

Eve continues the growth that she started in the earlier books in this one. Although she is still not ready to admit that she needs to slow down until she drops, she is now willing to admit after she dropped that Roark taking care of her might not be the worst thing. In addition she realises that she needs some of the people who have somehow manage to worm their way into her life.

This isn’t one of my favourite In Death books but it is another solid addition to the series. If you like L&O: SVU then you will enjoy this book.

Copyright ©2011 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: One Was A Soldier

One Was A Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Category: Crime

Challenges: Mystery & Suspense, What’s in a Name

Synopsis: Five veterans meet in a therapy group in the small town of Millers Kill. All of them have wounds from the war, some visible, others less so. When one of them dies the others refuse to leave their fallen comrade behind and set out to find out the circumstances around the death. In the process the individuals begin to heal. The seventh book about Episcopal Priest Clare and her Police Chief Russ looks at some of the darker sides of war, both for those who have fought and for those who are left at home.

My Thoughts: I loved this book. Spencer-Fleming has once again managed to mix the social issues with characters that feel supremely real. The town of Millers Kill, NY feels real. The characters are presented warts and all.

As with most of the books in the series this book doesn’t have a straight chronology. The book starts in September with the first meeting of a therapy group for veterans. We are then taken back to June with the return of two of the members of the group, first Eric McCrae and then Clare’s return. We get to see both those physically damaged by war and those whose wounds are psychological. Although I know very little about the affects of war I felt that the portrayal of the characters wounds was very well done.

Personally I have always found Clare’s drinking to be a bit of a problem. To me she has been using it as a crutch even before she went to Iraq. I might be slightly oversensitive here as we have alcoholism in the family (my uncle celebrated 30 years sober this week!) and so the phrase “I need a drink because…” always sets off alarm bells in my head. Ever since the scene in I Shall Not Want where Clare and Russ meet at the liquor store I’ve had an uneasy feeling in my gut. I thought the book handled Clare’s own dawning realisation about how she was “Not fine at all”. Really well, but I do wish that Russ had pushed a bit more, especially since he has his own experience.

I’ve said it before, but I am going to point it out again, one of the things I like about these books is the fact that I can relate to the reality of Millers Kill. I currently live in a small town, so small that we in fact don’t even have our own police force. Although, here in Sweden we have very few people go into the military (we are at peace dontcha know*) but I could still relate to the need to get out. To leave the small town, that causes so many of the towns inhabitants to join up. I loved the fact that Spencer-Fleming highlighted the fact that these types of towns send a disproportionate amount of their inhabitants to the military. And that, we perhaps don’t recognize this enough.

In connection with the issues surrounding the reasons why so many people from towns like Millers Kill signing up to the armed forces comes the issues regarding the poor and the working poor and I really liked the way the book touches on these issues. This is especially evident in the scene at the soup kitchen where Spencer-Fleming, through Clare, enumerates the types of people who eat at the soup kitchen. Here it is very clear that it is not just the homeless but also the working poor who are in desperate need of services like this one.

As much as I love a good mystery for me that was really secondary to the characters in this book. The mystery didn’t actually engage me that much, I was much more interested in how it affected the different characters and their relationships. The mystery allows pretty much all the veterans to face their own problems in a way that I loved. Both through the fact that they confront each other (as in the case with Tally and Clare, and with Will and Clare, both who in some ways confront Clare about her drinking) and because it gives them something to focus on (as with Eric). There were also certain aspects of the solution that I found incredibly satisfying, especially in regards to the death, I won’t say more so I don’t spoil but…

Another aspect that I really appreciated was the humour in the book. It isn’t in your face but rather sneaks up on you here and there. I especially loved this passage:

Sarah pointed to Fergusson. “You are not Daphne from Scooby-Doo. We are not going to get into a purple van and ride around town looking  for a spooky old house.” (…) Will looked at her slyly. “What are you going to do, Sarah?” She shook her head. “I guess I’m going to put on an orange turtleneck and drive the van".”

I am guessing I am not the only reader who finds Clare’s insistence on getting into police business to mirror the Scooby gangs .

There were some things at the end of the book not related to Russ and Clare that made me want to hit someone with a two-by-four (or as someone pointed out in the discussion at Julia Spencer-Fleming’s Readers Space a “clue-by-four” which I thought was hilarious).  This desire to hurt someone also makes me really want to read the next book. Soon.

One more thing. I have a confession. For the first time in years I a suffering from a very bad case of character crush. I don’t think I’ve had one as bad as this since my crush on Gilbert Blyth when I was a teenager. So I thought I would put it out there that I would totally nail Kevin Flynn if I could. Just saying .

In conclusion I want to say that I think everyone should read this series, and if you are you should also check out the free e-book Letters to a Soldier as well as the Readers Space for extra material. All the books in the series would make excellent books for book group as they deal with so much more than the straight up mystery that one often gets from other books in the genre. I have managed to recommend the series several time already this week .

*I find the Swedish insistence on our neutrality to be a sham considering we are in both Afghanistan and Libya, as well as having taken part in IFORs work in former Yugoslavia.

Previous books in the series:

In the Bleak Midwinter

A Fountain Filled With Blood

Out of the Deep I Cry

To Darkness and To Death

All Mortal Flesh

I Shall Not Want

Copyright ©2011 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Book Review: Treachery in Death

Treachery in Death by J.D. Robb

Publisher: Little Brown Book Group

Category: Crime fiction

Challenges: Mystery and Suspense Challenge

Synopsis: Detective Peabody accidentally overhears two dirty cops discuss the death of a weasel. Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her team have to bring justice and clean up the police.

My Thoughts: This was a solid addition to this series. It didn’t blow me away but it also didn’t bore me to death.

The book deals very well with the emotions one feels when someone or something you trust in breaks that trust. However, this is dealt with primarily through secondary characters such as Dr Mira. This makes this a little…I don’t know…thrown to the side?

I’m finding it hard to write about this instalment because it follows the pattern of all the other books in the series. A crime is committed and Eve and her team solve it. There is more to it of course but even the tension between Eve and Roark because she does something dangerous feels…done…

The one thing that is a bit different is Eve’s reaction to Bella, Mavis daughter. She isn’t quite as afraid as she normally is. But even that doesn’t seem so strange any more. Eve has grown a great deal in the series and as much as I love the characters and the world it feels like it might be time to wrap this one up. Don’t really know what else to say about the book. It has all been done. And I hate to say it.

Copyright ©2011 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Challenge Sign-Up Post: Mystery and Suspense Challenge

The Mystery and Suspense challenge is fairly simple. Read at least 12 books that would fall under the mystery and suspense category. Do so between January 1st and December 31st 2011. There is no need to make up a list beforehand and even if you do you don’t have to stick with it. Since I love lists here is mine:

Fladdermus Manen by Jo Nesbo (in Swedish)

Kackerlackorna by Jo Nesbo (in Swedish)

Treachery in Death by J.D. Robb

One Was a Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Rödhake by Jo Nesbo (in Swedish)

Smärtans hus by Jo Nesbo (in Swedish)

Djävulens stjärna by Jo Nesbo (in Swedish)

Frälsaren by Jo Nesbo (in Swedish)

Snömanen by Jo Nesbo (in Swedish)

Pansarhjärta by Jo Nesbo (in Swedish)

Frukta inte by Anne Holt (in Swedish)

Bones to Ashes by Kathy Reich

As you can see the list is heavily skewed toward Jo Nesbo that’s because I picked up all of his books at the Gothenburg Book Fair earlier this year so I have all of them to read. I am also really excited about the next book in the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery that is due out in April. And as always I love me a good In Death mystery, there is a new one out in February and there is usually one out in November so that might be another contender. As always I might change my mind

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

TSS and Weekly Geeks: Challenges

I’m going to start this Sunday Salon post (as I have before) with an apology. I haven’t been around much lately. I haven’t been reading or thinking about book other than my thesis books. I am once again deeply buried in thesis land and it isn’t pretty. Add to that the holiday season and job hunting (since I graduate in January) and I have been super busy. I have an interview for a job that would be great on Tuesday and I have been offered a job that is good but not perfect so I will definitely be working in the spring. The thesis is finally back on a track of sorts, so I am hoping to get my reading back on track in the next week or so (this week is going to be super busy).

I have slowly started planning my reading for the next year though and thus also the challenges I plan on taking part in. That makes this weeks Weekly Geeks topic perfect since it asks for our challenges for next year and why we do them!

First off there is my own challenge:

Nordic Challenge 2011 where you read authors from the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden).

Then there are, in no particular order:

What’s in a Name 4 This challenge looks like fun both because you can choose any genre, you just need to try and fit in the books

Shakespeare Reading Challenge I’m (almost) an English teacher but to be honest I’ve not read that much Shakespeare. I do own the complete works of Shakespeare so I have really no excuse. I have decided to aim for quite a low level and only read 4 plays, but you know, baby steps (most of the Shakespeare plays I have read I’ve read more than once).

GLBT Challenge 2011 I did this challenge this year and I want to continue with it as I’ve enjoyed it. This challenge doesn’t have any levels instead we set our own. I haven’t quite decided what my levels are going to be.

South Asian Author Challenge Again this is a repeat challenge for me but one that I enjoyed and one where I already know most of the books I want to read.

Mystery and Suspense Challenge This one was a no brainer for me, I read a lot of mystery books so this one fits perfectly with my current reading patterns.

All of these challenges allow you to use a book for more than one challenge and that is important to me. I have some books who fit into 3 or 4 challenges.

I will also (as I’ve said before) be taking part in the Year of Feminist Classics. I don’t know if I will be reading all the books but my aim is to read a fair chunk of them.

I take part in challenges because they challenge me to read books I would otherwise not consider, and this goes for challenges which genres I normally read as well. Plus I love making lists . I’ve also joined some challenges that shine a light on issues that I find important such as the GLBT Challenge and the Year of Feminist Classics. These challenges, with their focus allow me to consider aspects of the books that I might otherwise not have thought about.

I am also pretty sure I’ve signed up for a couple of Read A-Longs (Carin are we still doing that?) Plus I am reading War and Peace at a pace of a chapter a day.

Look out for my lists for my reading challenges over the next few days as well as my round-up posts for completed challenges this year!

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Thriller and Suspense Challenge: Wrap-Up Post

 

This is what I wrote for the introduction:

I am going to read primarily J.D. Robb, but I also want to try Julia Spencer-Fleming’s In the Bleak Midwinter which was recommended to me by a non-book blogger  blogger friend. I will probably be reading the J.D. Robb books in order starting with Naked in Death, plus there is a new book out in the series in January (or possibly February depending on which site you look at) called Fantasy in Death that I am very excited about.

So what books did I end up reading, and what did I think about them? I’ve included the synopsis from my review as well as part of my review. Hope it captures the attention of someone who hasn’t seen the individual posts!

 

 

The Girl Who Played With Fire  by Stieg Larsson

Synopsis: In the second instalment of Stieg Larssons Millennium Trilogy Lisbeth Salander has returned from a longer stay abroad when a series of events conspire to put her well concealed past into the forefront not just of her life but for all the world to see. Only a handful of people believe in Lisbeth’s version of events and they must now figure out the puzzle that is Lisbeth before it is to late. At the front of this effort is journalist Mikael Blomkvist. There is a problem however, for some reason Lisbeth has severed all contact with Mikael and he doesn’t know why. What follows is a dramatic search for a truth that has been protected by the highest powers in the country.

 

My Thoughts:I liked this book better than I did The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but I am still not convinced that it is as amazing as people keep saying.

I enjoyed the development of Lisbeth…

 

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson

Synopsis:The third and final instalment of the Millennium series continues the story where The Girl Who Played With Fire left off. Lisbeth Salander did survive being buried alive but her problems are far from over. Zalachenko was previously an assassin with the Soviet Secret Intelligence. He is also Salander’s father and he is the one who has been trying to kill her. Strong forces are trying to shut her up for good. (Own translation from Adlibris.com)

 

My Thoughts: I liked this one. Not loved but liked. The issues I’ve had with previous books didn’t seem quite as prevalent in this one. Yes it could still have done with a good edit but I think I have gotten more used to the writing style…

Immortal in Death by J.D. Robb

Synopsis: Lieutenant Eve Dallas best friend gets accused of murder and it is up to Eve to find the real killer. While planning a wedding.

 

My Thoughts: I love the In Death series but part of me had forgotten how laugh out loud funny some of the earlier books are. This one had me giggling several times. The funnies lines are often the kind of throw away lines between characters and this contributes to the feeling of the characters are real. The realism of the characters is something I really appreciate…

 

Rapture in Death by J.D. Robb

Synopsis: A series of suicides where the victims have nothing in common except a smudge on their brains puzzle New York cop Eve Dallas.

 

My Thoughts: This book disturbs me a bit. The thought of people being able to manipulate our brainwaves in order to get us to do something is incredibly frightening. Yes music can heighten an experience. Lyrics can give us ideas. But they can in no way be altered to fit individual brain patterns. That is just scary…

Ceremony in Death by J.D. Robb

Synopsis:A sturdy well respected cop dies and his granddaughter contacts Eve in fear for her life. What follows is a journey into the occult with black candles and blood. Will Eve be able to figure out who is murdering people and why?

 

My Thoughts: This book is actually quite creepy. I’m not normally a superstitious person but I would have to agree with Peabody, I would want some form of protection against all this witchcraft.

I do like the fact that Robb, through her characters, do not condemn all witchcraft…

 

Vengeance in Death by J.D. Robb

Synopsis: This instalment sees Robb explore one of the supporting cast, Summerset. A man is murdered in a rather gruesome  way and all things point towards Roarke’s majordomo Summerset, especially when the murdered man has connections to Roarke and to Summerset’s dead daughter.

 

My Thoughts: Vengeance in Death sees the introduction of one of my favourite characters, McNabb, so it has a special place in my heart. I like McNabb’s youthful enthusiasm and his love of all things technology. I am no computer geek myself but both my dad and my brother are so I always find the techgeeks in the In Death series to be particularly endearing…

Fantasy in Death  by J.D. Robb

Synopsis: Bart, Cill, Benny and Var are best friends and are living their dream, they design and sell video games. However one day Bart is killed in a locked holoroom while testing the latest game. Eve Dallas and her partner Delia Peabody are put on the case.

 

My Thoughts: Oh my! How I loved this book. Robb is back in fine form! The last few books in this series have felt a bit lacklustre. I still liked them but they didn’t bring me the same joy that the earlier books did. This one. This one totally did.

Part of the reason I loved this one so much was because it was set in a subculture that I can somewhat relate to…

 

Murder at the Vicarage  by Agatha Christie

Synopsis: Colonel Protheroe is not a well liked man, as a matter of fact he is disliked by most, so when he is found dead in the Vicars study no one is really sorry. They are however curious as to who dun it!

 

My Thoughts: I had some problems with this. I often felt like I was supposed to already have a relationship with these characters. Know things about them that I couldn’t possibly know. Take the narrators nephew who is described as “young”. How young is young? As the story unfolds one finds out how young he is but this bugged me at the time. In addition to this we never really do find out what he is doing there. Why is he living with his uncle and not his own parents?

I also found the ending to be very rushed…

 

In The Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Synopsis: Reverend Clare Fergusson has only just started her new job as the priest of St. Albans Episcopal Church in Miller’s Kill, upstate New York. One cold winters evening when she is heading out for a run she finds a new born baby abandoned in a box on the church step. This is the start of a mystery that will bring new people into her life and also grave danger.

 

My Thoughts: The first thing that struck me about the book was the similarities between Miller’s Kill (where the book is set) and my own home town. Many of the same social and economic issues are present. Although here it is not necessary to have money for college (we do not pay tuition) it is still the issue of there being very little future for those who do want to stay here. The inclusion of the social problems that the lack of a future cause really show the real problems faced by many people in the western world.

These social problems also become the backdrop for the crime Reverend Clare Fergusson and Police Chief Russ Van Alsyne are tasked with solving…

 

A Fountain Filled With Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Synopsis: When two gay men are badly beaten followed by the death of an out of town developer the inhabitants of the little town of Millers Kill, New York don’t know what to think. Are the attacks linked to the victims sexual orientation or does it have something to do with the new spa the developer was building. Reverend Clare Fergusson and Chief of police Russ Van Alstyne are once again thrown together to solve a crime where they disagree on the causes.

 

My Thoughts: This book had less of the info dump. It didn’t have to establish as many characters as the first book did. Those characters that were introduced were done much more organically. I loved loved loved Margy Van Alstyne, Russ’s mother. One of the funniest incident in the book revolves around Russ having to arrest his mother for breaching the peace and her then refusing bail because she wants her day in court. It was a hilarious scene. I was sitting here laughing my head off.

This is a fairly simple murder mystery in and of itself, I like it because it tackles the issue of intolerance against the gay community…

 

Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Synopsis: This is a murder mystery that is really a Cold Case. Although it takes a long time before anyone actually finds out that there is a murder victim at all. It is also the story of a missing person and a parents right to choose. In the middle we find Reverend Clare Fergusson and Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne.

 

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this instalment of the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series by Spencer-Fleming. There were two aspects of the book that really contributed to my enjoyment of it. The first is the social issue this book deals with (each book covers some social issue) and the second on is the structure of the book…

 

To Darkness and To Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Synopsis: 24 hours in Millers Kill, NY. A missing young woman. A big business deal that could mean the start of one career and then end of several others. A relationship moving forward. And in the middle we find Reverend Clare Fergusson and Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne.

 

My Thoughts: Each of these smaller sections follows a part of the story. I really enjoyed this way of forwarding the storylines. It means that even though the book only covers a short space of actual time it also manages to cover a great deal of story.

By switching between the different characters Spencer-Fleming manages to create a very rich story…

Looking at the list I realise that ALL of my selections have strong female characters as at least part of the sleuth team. In most of them the main character is the sleuth herself.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the books I read for this challenge but my favourites were probably Fantasy in Death; Out of the Deep I Cry; and To Darkness and To Death. I liked Fantasy in Death because it was a sympathetic view on a world where I am on the periphery. I recognized and understood the world the characters were in. Also it is a book in a series I absolutely adore for its humour and warmth (yes warmth in a murder mystery :D)

Thank you very much to Carolyn of Book Chick City for hosting this great challenge! I hope it continues next year!!

And thank you so much for the prizes I won in January’s draw. I am really looking forward to reading them!

 

Copyright ©2010 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.